Airbnb new hosted “experience” review

Airbnb is one of the best sites for bookings and I can vouch for this as a frequent traveler. I have been using this site for the last 4 years and it made traveling a lot more convenient. I don’t have to get into the hassle of budgeting my stays because of its available on a platter for me.

Recently Airbnb has introduced experiences, and I was very excited at the prospect of taking these experiences.

So what are these experiences?

Airbnb wants to go beyond the Homestays so they introduced Experience or shall I say Local experience. Visiting any place gets all the more exciting when we have a local host who would give us an insight into that particular place.

We met our Local host (Manu) at the train station; from there he took us to our First stop.

Red Bridge of Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine

Our First stop was Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine. It is the famous shrine of Osaka and lies in the non-touristy, which gave us more knowledge of the native life. As we entered the shrine, Manu started explaining us the importance of that Shrine, he also clarified us about the structures & the sacred objects of the shrine, furthermore guided us with its significance in Japanese culture and also gave us chance to participate in them.

He explained to us about each and every area about the Shrine.

Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine

View of Lanterns inside Shrine

After spending about an hour we went to our second stop which was Sumiyoshi Park. The park is said to be the oldest park of Osaka and is renowned for its bridge or as in Japanese it’s called “ Bashi”. The park was adjacent to the shrine, from where we also got the glimpse of Sumiyoshi Takadoro Lighthouse.

Sumiyoshi Park

Beautiful white Camelia Flower

Our next and last stop were Kohama shopping street, the shopping street was mainly for locals. To our shock, the cost of the items was very low out there. From the shopping street, we got for ourselves couple of Japanese snacks which was recommended by Manu along with some green tea packets after sampling few. Towards the end, Manu got for us Famous Japanese sweet, Mochi and Kaitenyaki.

Kohama shopping street, Osaka

Trying custard filled Kaitenyaki, P.C. Manu

Would I use Airbnb for experience Again?

You can’t always visit those touristic place, these experience give you a good insight of locals life. After all, we all are not tourists, some of us are travelers who like experiencing the country for real. Therefore we will surely like to take more such hosted experience through Airbnb.

One of our best experience in Japan

About host (Manu)

Manu is an amazing guide! He is a talented conversationalist, knowledgeable & very accommodating. He has answered all our questions very patiently and was very excited to teach us about Japanese culture. I would definitely recommend taking a photo guide tour from Manu.

Manu our Host and Photoguide

Manu is a great guide and not to forgot he will take your amazing snaps and leave you with awesome memories.

About The Author

We Are Hrishi & Anushka , couple who have a itchy feet, want to wander around the world, to explore some untraveled roads, and just like others we also have a regular job which keep us moving on the road. Basically we are citizens of India but wanderers of the World.

Great article, i love airbnb and have meet some life long friends through it 🙂 defiantly gunna hit manu up when i visit osaka, looks like a champion! great read and enjoyable from start to finish! keep up the great work!

Manu looks like a pleasant guy who would do his best to accommodate a travelers’ needs. I guess Airbnb has been doing a good job and though i dont need to book on it as i have my own set of aggregated BnB’s (through BnBNation) to stay in but I have heard great reviews about Airbnb just like you did.

Sounds like you had a great experience, I will definitely have a look at the Air B’n’B experiences when planning our future trips. Like you said, we do like to explore more local areas so having a local take us around would be great! thanks for sharing!

The next time I travel I will try this out! The last time I travelled it was fun, but I was frustrated because it wasn’t planned out. I wish we would have had a guide to show us things that people don’t usually experience or know much about. Great post!